The Olympic Dictionary J

JAGER THOMAS MICHAEL “TOM” (swimming, USA, b. East St. Louis, Illinois, 6/10/1964). Three appearances (1984, 1988, 1992), 5 gold medals (4x100 freestyle 1984, 1988 and 1992, 4x100 medley 1984 and 1988), one silver (50 freestyle, 1988) and one bronze (50 freestyle, 1992). 1984 2- 0-0, 1988 2-1-0, 1992 1-0-1. He won 3 gold medals racing only in the heats with the American relay team, and another 2 swimming in the final, the third leg of the 4x100 freestyle relay in 1988 (setting the world record time of 3:16.53) and in 1992. In 1988, he had not lost against Matt Biondi (q.v.) in the 50 freestyle for 2 years, including the 1986 World Championships and the 1988 Trials, but he finished 22 hundredths behind his rival; 4 years later, he held the world record at 21.81 (he had set it, seen live on TV, in 1990, in a race with Biondi), but on that occasion he was beaten by Biondi and also by the Russian Aleksandr Popov (q.v.) who won the gold medal. In 1996 he tried to qualify for his fourth Olympiad, but he did not get through the Trials. He won 4 World Championship gold medals (50 freestyle and 4x100 freestyle, 1986-91) and set 6 world records for the 50 freestyle: the last, 21.81 as mentioned, remained unbeaten for 10 years. He won 11 US titles.

JAMAICA (Caribbean, capital Kingston, area 10.991 km2, population 2.713.782). 42 medals: 7 gold, 21 silver, 14 bronze. Best Olympics: Helsinki 1952, with 2 gold and 3 silver. Best sport: track & field, with 7 gold, 21 silver and 13 bronze medals (41 out of the 42 medals won, the other is a bronze in cycling). Most decorated athlete: Veronica Campbell, athletics, 2 gold medals (200 m and 4x100 m 2004), one silver (4x100 m 2000) and one bronze (100 m 2004); Merlene Ottey (q.v.) has won a total of 8 medals, but no golds (3 silver and 5 bronze). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1936, received IOC recognition the same year. The country has appeared at all Games since 1948 including Rome 1960, where it was present as part of a mixed team, with Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago. The Organising Committee erroneously called the team Antilles. Two medals (not counted in the total for ) were won at those Games: bronze in the 4x400 and another for one of the relay team members, , in the 800. Kerr, Malcolm Spence and Keith Gardner were Jamaican; James Wedderburn was from Barbados.

JAPAN (Asia, capital Tokyo, area 372.824 km2, population 127.966.710). 333 medals: 113 gold, 106 silver, 114 bronze. Best Olympics: 2004, with 16 gold, 9 silver and 12 bronze medals. Best sport: judo, with 31 gold, 14 silver and 13 bronze medals. Most decorated athlete: Sawao Kato (q.v.), gymnastics, with 8 gold (individual all-around 1968 and 1972, floor exercise 1968, team 1968, 1972 and 1976, parallel bars 1972 and 1976), 3 silver (individual all-around 1972, horizontal bar 1972, pommel horse 1972) and one bronze (rings 1968). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1911, received IOC recognition the following year; since 1912 Japan has only missed the 1948 (not invited as an aggressor country in the Second World War) and 1980 Games due to the boycott.

JÄRVINEN MATTI HENRIKKI (track & field, Finland, b. Tampere 18/2/1909, d. Helsinki 22/7/1985). Two appearances (1932, 1936) and one gold medal (javelin 1932). 1932 1-0-0. Verner Järvinen had won Finland’s first Olympic gold medal, in the Greek-style discus throw at the 1906 Intercalated Games (plus a bronze medal in the discus in the same edition; and another bronze in the Greek-style discus throw in 1908). Three of his sons took part in the 1932 Games: Kaarlo “Kalle” Verner came 12th in the shot put, Akilles “Tatu” won silver medal in the decathlon, after the silver that he had won in 1928 (in 1930 he had also set a world record), while Matti won gold medal in javelin. His were the 5 best throws in the competition, he finished almost 3 metres ahead of the

92 The Olympic Dictionary silver medallist, and he took off his tracksuit trousers only for the photo. He also won 2 European gold medals (1934-38) and 8 Finnish titles, and he set 10 world records between 1930 and 1936, from 71.57 to 77.23 metres. During his career he achieved 20 throws at over 75 metres, but at the 1936 Olympics, he had back problems and came only 5th.

JEU DE PAUME Forerunner of tennis, also known as Court Tennis or Real Tennis, it was an Olympic sport only in London in 1908. Cf. Sports, section IV, chapter Forgotten sports.

JOHANSSON IVAR (wrestling, Norway, b. Kuddby 31/1/1903, d. Norrköping 4/8/1979). Two appearances (1932, 1936) and 3 gold medals (freestyle, middleweight 79 kg, 1932; greco-roman, welter 72 kg, 1932; greco-roman, middleweight 79 kg, 1936). 1932 1-0-0, 1936 2-0-0. In Los Angeles he won 4 matches in 3 days, winning the gold medal for freestyle on 3 August, just within the limit for the 79 kg category; then he spent a day in the sauna, lost 5 kg, won another 4 matches, and on 7 August he won gold medal in Greco-Roman in the category below. His won his third gold in Berlin, in Greco-Roman. He also won 9 European Championship gold medals (6 in Greco- Roman, 3 in freestyle), a silver and a bronze, between 1931 and 1939; and he won 24 Swedish titles, the last at the age of 40.

JOHNSON BEN (track & field, , b. Falmouth, Jamaica, 30/12/1961). Three appearances (1984, 1988, 1992), 2 bronze medals (100 m and 4x100 m relay, 1984). 1984 0-0-2. He is famous for the greatest doping scandal in the history of the Games. It occurred in 1988, when the Canadian sprinter, who already held the world record at 9.83 but who had been beaten earlier that season by his rival Carl Lewis (q.v.) in Zurich and Cologne, was not the favourite for the when he reached Seoul. He risked elimination in the quarter finals, finishing third in 10.17 behind (q.v.) and Dennis Mitchell. Qualifying as one of the fastest third-place finishers, in the semi-final he won without causing any great excitement in 10.03, while Lewis flew, at 9.97. In the final the American made a better start than usual, with a reaction time slightly slower than that of Johnson (0.136 as opposed to 0.134), whose start speed was his major advantage. At 80 metres the Canadian had a 2 metre lead, and Lewis was pulling back in the last metres but not enough to reach Johnson, who won at 9.79, world record. “This record will last for 50 years”, he said after the race. But the anti-doping checks revealed 90 nanograms of a steroid, Stanozolol, confirmed by sample B. The IOC reported that Johnson had tested positive, and launched an enquiry: his coach Charlie Francis, ex Canadian sprinter, and his doctor Jamie Astaphan revealed that Johnson had been taking steroids, testosterone and diuretics since November 1981 in order to hide the traces of GH, growth hormone, extracted from the pituitary gland of dead bodies. In June 1989, Johnson himself confessed, adding that one month before the games, he had been given the last injections of Winstrol-V, a product used to fatten calves. He was disqualified for two years, his medals (gold in Seoul and the gold won at the Rome World Championships in 1987) were assigned to the athlete coming second, in both cases Carl Lewis, his records were cancelled, including the 9.83 achieved at the World Championships in Rome, and his personal best dropped to the 10.14 set in the quarter finals in Rome. He kept just the 2 bronze medals won at the 1984 Los Angeles Games in the 100 metres (10.22 behind Lewis and Sam Graddy) and in the 4x100 (38.70 with Tony Sharpe, and Sterling Hinds). Johnson, born to a poor family in Jamaica, had moved to Canada in 1976. He began running there, coached by Charlie Francis. Before the Seoul scandal, he had won the 100 in the 1985 World Cup and at the 1986 (where he also won the 4x100). In 1987, during the 100 final at the World Championships in Rome, he recorded the best starting reaction time ever, 0.109. After the disqualification period inflicted at Seoul, he returned to competitive running in late 1990. One year later, he came 8th in the final with the Canadian 4x100 at the Tokyo World Championships. He qualified for the 1992 Games, where he was eliminated in the semi-final (coming last, 10.70). In January 1993, he tested positive for testosterone after an indoor meeting in Montreal, and he was expelled from the IAAF. That ended his career. For

93 The Olympic Dictionary two short periods he was coach to Saadi Gheddafi, son of Libyan leader Muhammar Gheddafi, and to ex footballer Diego Armando Maradona. He then turned to advertising, his range of sportswear, and he worked as a coach. “I have achieved something good in life”, he said a few years ago, “my parents saw me run faster than any other human being, and that’s enough. Better than a gold medal”.

JOHNSON EARVIN “MAGIC” (basketball, USA, b. Lansing, Michigan, 14/8/1959). One Olympic appearance (1992) and one gold medal. Point Guard and playmaker he was in the first Dream Team, the U.S. National basketball team that won Olympic gold in Barcelona, 1992, beating Croatia 117-85 in the final. With the Lakers, the team in which he played for his entire career, he won the NBA title again in 1980-82-85-87-88. In 1991 he announced that he was HIV positive on live TV, and his decision to retire. He returned to the court in order to qualify for the National team at the Barcelona Games, and he played in 1996 too, when he definitively closed his career.

JOHNSON MICHAEL DUANE (track & field, USA, b. Dallas, Texas, 13/9/1967). Three appearances (1992, 1996, 2000), 5 gold medals (200 m 1996, 400 m 1996 and 2000, 4x400 m 1992 and 2000). 1992 1-0-0, 1996 2-0-0, 2000 2-0-0. He dominated the 200 and in the 1990s, winning 5 Olympic golds and 9 World Championship golds. He made his Olympic debut in 1992, winning the 4x400 with the U.S. relay team, setting the world record (2:55.74). In the 200 he did not progress beyond the semi-final due to a food poisoning problem. Four years later, at the Trials for the Games, assisted by the wind but within official limits, he ran the 200 m in 19.66, beating the world record that had been set by Pietro Mennea (q.v.) and that had lasted 17 years. At the Games he improved it even further, to 19.32 (he ran the second 100 m in 9.20), winning the gold medal ahead of Frankie Fredericks and . His very personal style was efficient and economical: chest erect, almost immobile, short, rapid paces, little arm movement. At Atlanta he also won the 400 (43.49, ahead of British and Ugandan Davis Kamoga), becoming the first man to achieve the Olympic 200-400 double; amongst women, this feat had been achieved by Valerie Brisco-Hooks (q.v.) in 1984 and Marie José Perec (q.v.) in 1996. Before the 2000 Sydney Games he sustained a thigh injury during the Trials in Sacramento. He recovered in time, and in he won the 400 in 43.84, and the 4x400 (2:56.35). Before taking up athletics, he had played basketball, American football and tennis: his first experiences on the track were at the age of 13. In 1990 his time dropped below 19.90 for the first time, and in 1991, he won the 200 at the Tokyo World Championships, the first of 9 world titles (200 m 1991-95, 400 m 1993-95-97-99, 4x400 m 1993-95-99). In the he was unbeaten between 1990 and 1992 (32 consecutive victories), and likewise in the 400 from 1990 to 1997 (58 consecutive victories). He retired in 2001, and became a TV commentator and manager, for athletes including 400 m runner . Best performances: 10.09 in the 100 m, 19.32 in the 200 m, 43.18 in the 400 m.

JONES MARION LOIS (track & field, USA, b. Los Angeles, California, 12/10/1975). Two appearances (2000 and 2004), no medals. She would have won 5 Olympic medals (gold in the 100, 200 and 4x400, bronze in the and the 4x100, all at Sydney, 2000), but, after she admitted to having used doping substances, in November 2007 the IAAF cancelled all her results obtained from 1 September 2000, while on 12 September 2007, the IOC officially cancelled all her results at the Games and asked for the return of all the money prizes that she had won in that period. The enquiry that led to the IOC’s decision began in summer 2003, when the BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative) case exploded: this US pharmaceutical company supplied illegal drugs to many athletes. The enquiry involved Marion Jones’ ex husband, weightlifter CJ Hunter, her son’s father, Tim Montgomery (ex-100 metre world record holder, then disqualified for doping in 2005), and ex coach Trevor Graham. The IAAF did not cancel her results before 1 September 2000, which include three world titles (100 m 1997-99, 4x100 m relay 1997) and a World Championship bronze (long jump, 1999). In 1992 she came close to taking part in the Barcelona Games at the age of 16:

94 The Olympic Dictionary she came 4th in the 200 at the New Orleans trials, but refused the role of reserve for Barcelona. She was also a good basketball player: in 1994, with the North Carolina University team, she won an NCAA title, and two years later she was included in the Olympic preliminary selection for the Atlanta Games, but a foot injury precluded her selection for that Olympiad. In 1996 she decided to concentrate on track & field.

JORDAN (Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Asia, capital Amman, area 88.778 km2, population 5.924.247). The Olympic Committee, formed in 1957, received IOC recognition in 1963: Jordan has been ever-present at the Games since 1980. Yet to win a medal.

JORDAN MICHAEL JEFFREY (basketball, USA, b. New York, New York, 17/2/1963). Two appearances (1984 and 1992) and 2 gold medals (1984 and 1992). 1984 1-0-0, 1992 1-0-0. In 1984, after winning the US university title two years earlier with North Carolina, he won an Olympic gold medal at Los Angeles, the last time in which the US team consisted of just university players. The victory at the Barcelona Games, 1992, was that of the Dream Team, the selection of the finest players in the NBA. In the pre-Olympic tournament in Portland, the team scored an average of 121.1 points per match, with an average difference of 51.5 points. In the Olympic final, the US team beat Croatia 117-85, Jordan was the best scorer in the final with 22 points: 119 points in total, 38 assists and 37 steals in 8 matches. Jordan had made his NBA debut in 1984, after his first Olympic gold medal, and he won three consecutive titles with the Chicago Bulls from 1991 to 1993. After the last title, he made the surprise announcement of his retirement in order to take up baseball, the sport loved by his father who had recently been killed by unidentified assailants. But with the jersey of the Birmingham Barons he was not successful in the minor leagues, and he returned to basketball, winning another 3 titles with the Bulls between 1996 and 1998.

JOYNER-KERSEE JACQUELINE “JACKIE” (track & field, USA, b. East St. Louis, Illinois, 3/3/1962). Four appearances (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996), 3 gold medals (heptathlon 1988 and 1992, long jump 1988), one silver (heptathlon 1984) and 2 bronze medals (long jump 1992 and 1996). 1984 0-1-0, 1988 2-0-0, 1992 1-0-1, 1996 0-0-1. At school she excelled in athletics and basketball, and in fact the UCLA succeeded in beating the competition of other universities by means of a generous scholarship. At UCLA she met Bob Kersee, the coach that she would later marry. She made her Olympic debut at Los Angeles in 1984, where she won silver medal in the heptathlon, just 5 points behind the Australian Nunn, and came 5th in the long jump. In the same edition, her brother Al won the Olympic long jump title. In Seoul 1988, she won the heptathlon in front of East Germans John and Behmer, obtaining a world record 7.291 points (unbeaten as at 31/12/2007); in Korea she also won a gold medal in the long jump. She excelled in jumps and sprinting, but had more difficulty in throwing and medium distance events. In the 1992 Barcelona Games she once again won the gold medal in the heptathlon (7.044 points: 12.85 in the 100 hs, 1.91 high jump, 14.13 shot put, 23.12 in the 200, 7.10 long jump, 44.98 javelin, 2:11.78 in the 800) beating Russian Byelova and German Braun, while she came third in the long jump at 7.07, behind German Heike Drechsler (q.v.) and Ukrainian Inessa Kravets. She reached the 1996 Atlanta Games, where she won another bronze in the long jump, but had to withdraw from the heptathlon due to a pulled muscle in the 200 metres. After Atlanta, she played 17 matches with the Richmond Rage jersey in the newly- formed American Basketball League. She retired in 1997 but returned to competition in 2000, failing to qualify for her fifth Olympiad. In her career she won 4 World Championship titles (long jump 1987-91, heptathlon 1987-93) and 5 world records (4 in the heptathlon and one in the long jump). After retiring, she worked at the agency managing the athletes coached by her husband. Her best performances: 22.30 in the 200 m, 2:08.51 in the 800 m, 12.61 in the 100 hs, 1.93 in the high jump, 7.49 in the long jump, 16.84 shot put, 50.12 javelin, 7.291 pt in the heptathlon.

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JUANTORENA ALBERTO DANGER (track & field, , b. Santiago de Cuba 21/11/1950). Three appearances (1972, 1976, 1980) and 2 gold medals (400 m 1976, 800 m 1976). 1976 2-0-0. Together with American Paul Pilgrim (Athens 1906), he is the only athlete to have won the 400 and the 800 in the same edition of the Games. He achieved this double at Montreal in 1976. First he won the 800 in 1:43.50 ahead of Belgian Ivo Van Damme and American Richard Wohlhuter, beating the world record and dedicating his victory to Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolution and the people of his country; then he won the gold medal for the 400, holding back in the heats and winning the final in 44.26 ahead of and . Powerful, with an attractive style, and a long stride of about 2.70 metres, he began his sports career playing basketball. In 1971 the coach Josè Salazar commended him to the Athletics Training Institute and persuaded him to give up basketball and concentrate on athletics. He made his track debut in 1972 and was selected for the Munich Games, where he was eliminated in the 400 semi-final. In 1973 and 1974 he achieved 40 victories in 40 races, and the university world title (1973). After Montreal, he improved the 800 m world record (1:43.44 at the University Games in 1977), but he was hampered by a series of injuries, and at the Moscow Games, 1980, after an operation on his Achilles tendon, he came 4th in the 400, at 45.09. In 1983, at the Helsinki World Championships, he broke the ligaments of an ankle during training; he recovered, but he could not take part in the Los Angeles Games, 1984, due to the boycott. In 1985 he retired in order to begin a career in politics: he became Castro’s personal consultant, a member of the Cuban parliament, and vice-president of the National Institute of Sport. In his career he also won 3 gold medals in the Central-American Games and 2 silvers at the Pan-American Games. Best performances: 44.26 in the 400 m, 1:43.44 in the 800.

JUDO It first appeared in the Tokyo Games, 1964 and, after 1968 when it was not included, it has always been part of the programme. It is governed by the IJF (International Judo Federation, www.ijf.org).

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